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Nissan installs 1,000th CHAdeMO fast charger in Europe

While the European Union hasn't been very supportive of CHAdeMO stations, the fast chargers are seeing significant growth in the European electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, with Nissan installing number 1,000 at the Roadchef Clacket Lane Services in Surrey, UK recently. In the past year, the number of CHAdeMO fast chargers nearly doubled in Europe, starting from about 600 stations in early 2013, and that's helping make EVs more useful. Nissan says that installation of a CHAdeMO station along Norway's E18 highway increased EV use eightfold there in the 18-month period after that station was installed.

The new CHAdeMO station in the UK is available to use for free and, like other CHAdeMO stations, can charge a Nissan Leaf or other compatible EV up to an 80-percent charge in just under 30 minutes. Japanese automakers like Nissan and Mitsubishi are dedicated to the CHAdeMO but German and US automakers continue to support a competing technology in Europe and abroad, the SAE Combo DC fast charger. Tesla Motors has covered all the bases as it rolls out its $1,000 CHAdeMO adapter for its Supercharger stations.

Nissan worked with Ecotricity, a UK green energy firm considered to be a pioneer in EV charging, for the Surrey installation. Nissan says that installing it on the M25 highway south of London helps EV drivers gain easy access to Kent and onward into Europe on one of the busiest roads in Europe. That will help drivers of the Leaf and the upcoming Nissan e-NV200 electric van to quickly extend their journeys, said Jean Pierre Diernaz, Nissan's director of electric vehicles, in the press release available below.

Nissan has announced 1,000 CHAdeMO quick chargers have now been installed in Europe with the commissioning of the charger at the Roadchef Clacket Lane Services in Surrey, UK. The fast charging unit can recharge the batteries of compatible* electric vehicles - including the 100% electric Nissan LEAF - from zero to 80 percent charge in just 30 minutes, and at zero cost.

The installation of the fastest type of chargers dramatically increases the uptake and usage of electric vehicles. In Norway, Europe's biggest EV market, the number of electric vehicles using the E18 highway increased eight fold in an 18 month period after a CHAdeMO quick charger was installed on the route**.

The new charger has been installed in collaboration with Ecotricity, a UK green energy specialist and pioneer in electric vehicle charging. The location south of London on the M25 motorway, one of the busiest in Europe, allows drivers west of London easy access to Kent and onwards into Europe.

Director of Electric Vehicles, Nissan Europe, Jean Pierre Diernaz commented: "This is a huge landmark for zero-emission mobility, allowing a range of EVs, including the Nissan LEAF and forthcoming Nissan e-NV200 electric van, to quickly extend their journeys. The UK charging network is expanding rapidly and through our partner Ecotricity, customers are able to 'refuel' their car for free with wind and solar generated electricity."

This latest charger is part of a network of 195 chargers in the UK, which is forming electric corridors across the country, linking major towns and cities. In the UK, Nissan has been working with partners including IKEA, Moto, Roadchef, Welcome Break and Nissan dealers to create this rapidly growing network with 124 quick chargers installed in 2013.

The rate of installation of CHAdeMO quick chargers across Europe rose sharply in 2013, hugely increasing access for Nissan LEAF customers. In 2010 there were just 16 quick charging points. This rose to 155 a year later and 540 in 2012. The 1,000 mark in 2013 will be dwarfed by the end of 2014 with over 1,800 quick charger points expected. Together with Nissan, investment in this Euope-wide development of infrastructure comes from a multitude of partners in the energy field, including the Swiss multinational power company ABB, French quick charger manufacturers DBT, and the Portuguese EFACEC Corporation, leaders in the electromechanics field.

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Meanwhile, Tesla's construction of charge station across USA has by de facto established its connector as the standard EV plug in USA. Meanwhile, the SAE standard is all talk. The future battle is CHAdeMo vs. Tesla.

"construction of charge station across USA" Didn't give it away? He was talking about Superchargers, which are DC. You are stretching the SAE as if it were more of a standard than Tesla's. SAE did get the AC Level 2 charger standard, but are WAY behind in the DC charging standards.

I dont think it will be a battle, they can co-exist. CHAdeMO will be the mid grade DC fast charger, that Tesla can still use. Tesla will become the standard fast charge since they are well ahead of anything else. Once there are other EVs in the 50+Kw range, then we will see maybe some others. Who knows, maybe even SAE will get off their a$$es someday.

True... no other automaker can use the Superchargers currently.. but that could change pretty quickly. Too far apart is not objective. 120KW - 135KW chargers don't need to be as close together as 50KW chargers. So by the time that Tesla licenses use to other automakers, the density of Superchargers will be 3 times as it stands today. And will likely still have more chargers than SAE and much more EV miles enabled.

I don't see how Tesla becomes the standard when no one else can use their chargers. And their chargers are too far apart (and many too far in the boonies) for anyone else to use even if they could connect to them.

The US now has at least 4 SAE Combo chargers! I watched the number of CHAdeMO chargers shoot up from like 20 to hundreds in the last year. I hope to see SAE Combo take off as fast. The one here in the SF Bay Area supports both standards. Note to Jon LeSage, the CHAdeMO adapter for Teslas is really for the car, not the supercharger. You use it with your Tesla car to connect to a non-supercharger fast charger.

Since the number of Tesla owners will always exceed the number of Chademo chargers... it would be cheaper to produce an adapter for every charger, rather than every car. I wonder if anyone would buy a bunch of Tesla-Chademo adapters and chain them to Chademo chargers to spare Tesla owners from having to buy them. Probably a bad idea, since current tesla owners could certainly afford a $1000 option, and no additional risk of theft or vandalism. ---------------------- This is what we have feared... multiple automakers with differing standards... leaving consumers to pay more for adapters. I think waiting for automakers to agree on 1 fast charging standard is a bad idea, considering the pace in which EVs are developed (automakers shouldn't be shackled to a standard that will not improve as EVs improve). Instead, Fast Chargers should allow for multiple cables to be attached as standards become prevalent or discontinued. It is MUCH cheaper and faster to change the stationary chargers, than the EVs already sold. Fast Chargers could have 2 or 3 cables (like Gasoline has 3 octane hoses)... which have different connectors for Tesla, Chademo, and SAE (for the U.S.) and Tesla, Chademo, Mennekes (for EU).

m_2012: There has been no deployed CHAdeMO or CCS above 50kW. But both standards support higher, but no one has done higher since at 50kW a CHAdeMO charger charging a LEAF is already charging at 2C a higher charge rate in terms of pack stress than even Tesla's Superchargers at 135kW (which amounts to about 1.5C). To do a CHAdeMO charger above 50kW would only benefit those with larger packs. So it would only really make sense for Tesla to do this since they have the larger packs. JakeY: I have to change my terminology again. There is no equivalent name for "SAE Combo" in Europe as I said, but the term for the standard that crosses the both continents is CCS, not SAE Combo. My error. Anyway, my point here isn't to say Tesla shouldn't have made their own charging port. The point is they are the ones who did it. If they made their cars incompatible, let the Tesla owners deal with the fallout, no need to add proprietary charging ports to chargers out there to satisfy Tesla. It's not like Tesla is doing anything to help the non-Tesla EV users out there.

Rotation.... i do not disagree that Tesla should have to adapt to other standards as they become prevalent. Which is precisely what they are doing. They released a Chademo adapter and will build a SAE CCS adapter once they start to become prevalent. This was confirmed by Elon and J.B. while in Europe. But that does NOT excuse SAE or Tepco from progress. They should adapt their stations for Tesla as well, since Tesla is becoming equally prevalent too. So far, 3 connectors/protocols per station is not a far cry from 3 octane nozzles/underground tanks per gas station.

Tesla is the one who decided to use non-standard connectors. Let them deal with the adaptering. Where you say SAE, you mean J1772. The AC standard is J1772, the SAE name only goes on the combo, and it includes the Mennekes variant.

Joeeviocoe: That's not true. CHAdeMO was already not only out designed, but deployed when Tesla was making theirs. If you mean SAE Combo in the "for the US" portion, then you should be saying "SAE Combo" in the "for EU" portion too, as Mennekes is the J1772 alternative in Europe, not the SAE Combo alternative in Europe. I'm not claiming SAE was done before Tesla announced their Supercharger. It was in development though. And CHAdeMO was already released. So Tesla made a conscious choice to go non-standard with their fast charging system, just as they did with their AC system. So again, let them deal with the adaptering. Tesla's DC charging is not already used more. I have no idea where you get that from.

When Tesla was developing their was no 'standard' for DC fast charging. Only Level 2. --"Where you say SAE, you mean J1772. " No, I mean the CCS DC standard from SAE. Do not try to claim that SAE somehow developed a DC standard first, just because they developed an AC standard (J1772) first, and later added the DC standard to the J1772. Tesla's DC charging is still vastly superior and already used more... that is a gold standard in my book.

The 41 eVgo stations will be up and running in California within the next couple of months (13 open, 6 under construction, 22 permitting). These are all required to have SAE Combo (either at launch or shortly after). http://www.plugincars.com/evgo-has-13-public-charging-stations-california-and-counting-129314.html The only other question mark is if BMW will be installing dealer chargers for the i3 and how many.

Most Chademo stations are 1 stinking port, maybe 2. THAT'S A PROBLEM. Most Tesla Stations are 6 ports, some are 1, some 2, some 4, many are 8. 89 Superchargers times 5 ports on average gives 445 Tesla Superchargers worldwide :-)

Yes, although they have been publicly supportive of dual standard stations. But they don't have much of a choice but to be supportive. If they didn't support dual standard stations, the EU might have went ahead with proposed plan for all new stations to have the Combo connector only by 2017 (no other connector). Right now it's been changed to have Combo at minimum (no restrictions on other additional connectors).

Sister company Renault installed the Combo2 plug on the Renault Zoe. In addition EU decided that Combo2 would be the standard. Even Tesla uses the Mennekes connector on the european Model S. So why are Nissan still rolling out CHAdeMO? CHAdeMO has no future in Europe. It would be more productive if Nissan developed a Combo2 to CHAdeMO adapter and started converting those fast charges to the standard destined for Europe. I am really wondering why Nissan and Renault seems to be battling internally here. Is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?